The decision of French authorities to raid the Paris offices of search engine Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) could have much wider implications, both for Google overseas as well as for other companies known to mitigate huge tax bills by shifting revenue.
Google has had a rocky relationship in Europe for years. It was defeated by French and German politicians in 2014 when the EU introduced "right to disappear" legislation - in effect allowing individuals and companies to have their search engine entries erased if there was not a public interest case.
In January, the company managed to broker a deal with UK tax authorities which saw the company pledge to pay back taxes for 2005 to 2015 worth £130mln. In France, it was understood the company was willing to pay around three times that sum.
However, the French finance minister Michel Sapin ruled out striking a deal with the US group, saying the sums at stake in France were in the region of 1.6bn euros, around $2bn.
Google's European operations are headquartered in Ireland, which has some of the lowest corporate tax rates in Europe.
The company has been raided by French authorities before, in June 2011, during an investigation into transfers to Google's Irish headquarters.
If France is becoming more active in its tax clawback, other hardship euro zone nations may well see fit to look again too.
Already Italy has demanded more than €200mln from Google, which is accused of perpetrating tax fraud there for years.
Apart from other jurisdictions reviewing their tax relationship with Google owner Alphabet, there is a distinct chance that other brands accused of not paying their full tax dues in Europe, such as Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), and Starbucks Corp (NASDAQ:SBUX), could well face more probes too.
Google's Alphabet Inc shares closed up 2.2% at $733.03 on Tuesday. Starbucks closed up 1.5% at $55.44, Apple shares ended up 1.5% at $97.90, and Amazon advanced by 1.1% to $704.20.